Steve Bruce has been in charge of Sunderland for little more than a season but already he has seen his players clock up 95 yellow cards and 10 reds. Aware the suspensions resulting from such self destructive behaviour are unlikely to help the team achieve this season's aim of a top-10 Premier League finish, the manager has appealed for assistance.

It arrived in the shape of Howard Webb, England's World Cup final referee, who, answering a call from Wearside, headed up the A1 today to remind Bruce and his squad of the rules of the game.

"We requested Howard," Bruce said. "When you get someone of Howard's calibre coming up, the players will obviously listen. Hopefully they'll take his advice and it will sink in. I hope the message has sunk in; I'm fed up of disciplinary charges."

Not that a manager who saw his newly appointed captain Lee Cattermole sent off during last Saturday's 2-2 draw with Birmingham believes Sunderland are dirty. "I have managed teams whose discipline was, well, dear oh dear, but this lot are perfectly OK," Bruce said. "I can't remember any of my players hurting anyone badly. It's just that for some reason we end up with more reds and yellows than everyone else.

"Some of our cards have been silly rather than malicious. We have to grow up a little bit and be better behaved. We've got to remember that once you've got a yellow, you can't make a challenge."

Part of the trouble is that Sunderland players and match referees struggle to understand each other. "The communication between footballers and officials is generally getting better," Bruce added. "It is just not getting better for us. But that's why I asked for Howard specifically. Let's be fair, if the World Cup final referee can't get the respect of my players, who can?

"I don't know if referees are deliberately targeting us but of our 95 bookings, a third have been for dissent, which has got to stop. There is a bit of petulance there that we have to get rid of."

Bruce would admit that he has not always set the best example and was certainly in mea culpa mode. Some would say not before time.

Significantly the Sunderland manager, who issued a scathing critique of the novice official Anthony Taylor following the draw with Birmingham, was yesterday described as a "serial whinger" by Jeff Winter, the former Premier League referee. He also criticised Bruce's decision to make the often hot-headed Cattermole his captain.

"As a manager, I have to take the blame," Bruce added. "We have to improve our disciplinary record because it is now ludicrous. That's something I'm paid to do. We have to be better and I have to put something in place to make us better."